Ukraines President Petro Poroshenko and the Istanbul-based Orthodox patriarch on Saturday signed an accord that paves the way for the recognition of an independent Ukrainian church, a plan that has infuriated Moscow.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I had on October 11 agreed to recognise the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the Moscow Patriarchate, a move that was welcomed with jubilation by Kiev but condemned as "catastrophic" in Moscow.